"Benefit of the Doubt," or more lovingly known as "BOD," was one of many terms used at Nuclear Power School for grading exams. If a response you gave could be interpreted as a correct, BOD was scribbled in red across your answer. This rarely happened and was worth celebrating when it did.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

REACH

One of the brothers from my house contacted me because he has the opportunit to come to Denmark, like me. I've included our conversation because I thought you may like to read my response.

Yo Kloepfer,

I just accepted into the REACH program and I’m looking to probably go to Denmark next semester. I was just wondering how things are there and if it’s worth pursuing?

I know it’s probably a huge change but I just wanted to get a feel for what I’d be in for before I actually send in my final application. You can either call me (518-567-7037) or just email me when you get the time. Thanks man

-C

And my response:

Yo man. Just got some time and wanted to update you.

First of all, I've never been to Europe, so I didn't really know what to expect. I just went in with an open mind and so far it has been a blast. DTU in general, reminds me of RPI. My classes are about the same difficulty except no homework. Most classes have a final exam as the only grade. There may be some project work, but, not much. The scheduling works differently. Each class is a max of 4 hrs. I'll attach my schedule so you can see. Most classes are only lecture 2 hrs, then the next 2 hrs are for classwork. This is not mandatory work. I guess it replaces homework, which is kinda nice. Overall, I haven't thought classes are very hard. The 4 teachers I've had I like a lot. They all speak really good English. The language barrier is not even a problem here. Everyone speaks English, no joke.

Living on campus is great. I live in a hall of 17 (2 girls) Danes and the kitchen is great. It is fully stocked and works really well. Everyone does their own cooking and dishes and occasionally we cook together (see bacon explosion on facebook). My room is really nice. It is much bigger than I expected. It is perfect. The kids I live with in this kitchen are GREAT. I guess I got lucky because I have a really sweet kitchen. They are very social. Some kitchens are not as social. Everyone has been really nice to me and helped me out a lot. In fact, if you were to come here, I would recommend you take my room. I would send out some emails to get you in here. That may work because the guys here are concerned that someone lame will move in when I leave. I'll look into it if you're down.

The social scene on campus is pretty good. It would be great, except they have a male/female ration of 80/20. That is a shame because the campus is set up to party. For example, in our dorm complex is a popular bar, at a different bar on campus I went to two concerts last week, etc. There are a total of 6 bars on campus, not to mention each major has a "happy hour" every Friday. However, outside of campus, there is not too much, party wise at least. You need to go to the city of Copenhagen. There are some awesome clubs/bars there. One of my favorites is La Hacienda. It is 35USD to get in, but, free beer the entire night. It doesn't get much better than that. One downside to partying in the city is the trains shut down from 12:30am to 5:30am, which means you have to take a night bus to get home between those hours. However, between those hours, the night bus is 2x as expensive. If a normal bus ride is 5USD for the 40 minute ride home, it is now 10USD. As a result, most stay out until at least 5:30am. This is something I've had trouble adjusting to. You can stay out all night every night if you wanted to, but, I find it hard. I seem to hit a wall when it gets past like 4. I think I need to begin pregaming later in the night. The city is expensive, like the entire country. Quickly, you will learn where to shop for groceries and stuff. You've just got to accept that you are going to spend a lot of money. That is the only way you can justify it. If you travel, you should plan your trips in advance. It is easy to get a group together that wants to travel. Traveling from Denmark is easy. Denmark is practically in the center of Europe and you can go anywhere. I have plans of visiting London later this week for a couple of nights; easy as that.

I would definitely recommend coming to Denmark. I feel very cultured and I'm making a ton of new friends. I've made a ton of danish friends, not to mention all the other international students that I hang out with often (they have a great introduction week for international students). Now, I have friends from all over the world, how cool is that? It is a nice change from RPI too. I believe that you need to take a semester off from RPI somehow, either co-op or study abroad; everyone should do one of those two. I'm sure you know what I mean.

The decision is yours. I don't regret mine; not one bit. If you have any other questions, let me know. Take care,

Gmail Weather

About Me

We are three young college graduates who currently work together, live together, and are now starting a T-shirt business together. We hope our T-shirts will appeal to a majority of people because of their simple theme and overall originality. Either way, we pledge to document our first business experiences.